10years later

I placed my order for a 2”burrell in 2007 at the Warwick Model Engineering Exhibition with Modelworks. Kit one was free if you ordered on the day, so we went to Daventry and had a tour and placed the order. As we were going back to Australia by ship I ordered kits 2, 3 and 4. Unbeknown to me, Modelworks were running out of steam and by the time I returned to home, Steam Traction World had taken over. In the meantime I had paid for more kits but as STC did not have my money, I had to pay again. After making a few engineering adjustments eg the gear train had a tight spot but I bored it out pressed in a sleeve and rebored it. By 2009 I had 90 % of it assembled, unpainted. It was then disassembled into just the wheels, tender with hornplates then put into plastic bags and put on the shelf. Due to one thing and another not much happened for 8 years. It was becoming apparent that I was not going to get my Austin Atlantic ready for the Austin rally at Easter so I decided I had better get back to the Burrell and finish it, I thought it may take me about 4 days. 3 months later, after I had found the boiler, which took 5 days, I was finished. If I fitted the crankshaft once I fitted it a dozen times, same with the pressure gauge, it was always in the way. Firebox doors were a problem but eventually fixed them. The slides for the piston were way out and had to mill both sides to get everything lined up. As a lot of the parts were not in their named package, I kept coming across bits that entailed removing something to fit them. I noted someone had a problem with the governor as it was a bit fragile. Well I was careful but a visitor was not and tried to move it and broke one of the springs, it is now superglued up. The brass nuts and bolts for the boiler bands were too short so I had to buy longer ones and cut them off after they were fitted. I only had one pin for the ash pan so made another, I found the other one 3 days later. The long lever for the ash pan had a problem, the pin was 3mm and the hole was 2mm. It is supposed to rest on the pin on the hornplate, but it doesn’t.
I did not do the fancy paint lining some of you do, as to me it is supposed to be an agricultural engine, so it is painted grey, at least it is different. Will I steam it, probably not as I have other projects to finish. Also as the Boiler inspector pointed out, the Hydraulic Pressure Certificate does not say which national standard the test complies with, same re the safety valves, but it is stamped CE so they had to approve it. Don’t you love it when you can use their rules to get what you want.. (Same goes with my UK Birth Certificate, it does not state I was born in England. It says Sheffield but no country is mentioned, but I will have to live with that). I now have a good collection of small nuts and bolts and studs. Photo is on the Facebook site.